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feels like

fun fact:

in this frame i wanted to sneak in the detail of d-16’s miner badge port thingy being hollow snd scratched out bc this frame is when they found out about the truth for the first time - and d takes his badge out and destroys it outta anger.

i point out this detail in correspondence with the lyrics “mines still black and bruised and yours is perfectly fine” where d’s badge, something that represented his exploited status level as the top miner in his sector (always having an almost filled bar) thats now destroyed and crushed on the ground, whereas orion’s own badge - that has always been mostly empty due to his troublemaking and his lack of status and level during his mining shifts - still stay mostly untouched on his own frame. unaffected.

and i think that kinda parallels how megatron sees and thinks about feeling that orion/prime doesn’t care or is reacting as much to the truth - his non-revengeful approach so different compared mega’s own its angering.

u ever think abt how much sentinel has tainted how these two percieve eachother and their reminiscense ?? the amount of parallels you can draw from these three alone is crazyy yall its been rotting in my head all day

don’t mind me im just gonna post my ramble that got me into making this animatic in the first place:

just thinking about how much sentinel prime has tainted not only the entire system during his reign but like also how d-16 and orion percieves eachother,,,

like we alr know the whole “dont be like sentinel” get go that orion/optimus spews at d/megatron,, but theres also the moment where sentinel tainted smth vulnerable to d-16 such as the moment of the megatronus sticker that orion gave him,,, the parallel of sentinel literally engraving it onto his chest and staining it into smth so painful,, compared to the initial memory of orion carefully smoothing the sticker onto his shoulder frame,,,

do you think megatron thinks back to that moment with orion + the sticker but instead of remembering his smile and affectionate touch of a friend he instead only recalls the seething burn of an awful mark/scar + the vile sneer of sentinel’s expression as he “executes/brands” d-16??

do you think when d-16 was ready to deal the final blow to sentinel’s reign and life (think abt the parallels of the sentinel-megatronus + megatron-sentinel executions) - where he thought he’d imagined to watch the false prime’s expression as he’s blown into smithereens by his own weapon/hands, its now forever tainted by the haunting expression of orion’s face and disfigured frame instead - the wrong hues of blues and red fading instead of the expected blue and golds??

the parallels of both scenes and how both sentinel and orion “took” eachother’s place DESPITE both now both being dead to him in megatron’s mind in a way makes me think about how optimus and megatron could look at eachother and stays haunted by the remnants of sentinel in a way?? how they both think the other is the betrayer ???

optimus thinking that megatron using his given (+ stolen, considering megatronus’ cog) power for a destructive approach is just like how sentinel did. sentinel + d-16 were both sick of the system they were put in so they snuffed it out in the same manner, through violence and overtaking of power.

megatron seeing what happened when orion got killed and ended up becoming when he rose as optimus - a prime. another leader with a “blessed power” that bots would come easily flocking to under his “reign” of Another Prime. megatron rejecting that notion and despising the idea of a system lead by another prime, perhaps.

its so doomed its so awful and its such a beautiful play on how sentinel’s role as a villain really runs deep down and how it affects megatron specifically. sorry yeah anyways.